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An Introduction to Uzbek Dance
by Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray

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The dance traditions of present-day Uzbekistan have been enriched by numerous  cultures over the centuries because of the its central locations on the Silk  Road, the ancient network of trade routes which linked China with the  Mediterranean.

Once known as Bactria, Transoxiana, Maveranaher, and Turkestan, the area was first inhabited between 55,000 to 70,000 years ago. The ancient tribes that lived  in Central Asia left petroglyphs, bas-reliefs, clay sculptures, and other  artifacts depicting dancers and musicians. Later peoples continued to portray  dancing figures in wooden and clay sculptures, wall paintings, ornaments and  drawings on serving vessels of precious metal. Pictures dating from the first  centuries A.D. reflect religious, mythological, and secular subjects in which  dancing figures played an important part. 

From the fourth to eighth centuries the professional dancers of Samarkand,  Bukhara and Tashkent were so widely known that they were in demand at the  court of the Chinese emperor. The Arab invasion of Central Asia in the 7th  century and adoption of Islam promoted sexual segregation and the practice of  veiling. Women danced for each other in the ich kari, or women's quarters. Public performances of  dance were the  domain of the batcha or dancing boy, who dressed in women's clothing, wore make-up, and mimicked female  ways. A notable exception to this practice were the female court dancers  depicted in miniature paintings which illustrated manuscripts produced in  this area from the middle ages until the nineteenth century. 
 
The surviving dance heritage of the Uzbek people includes both  folklore and professional traditions. Folk dances fall into two
general  categories: dances performed at a specific time and linked to specific  occasions, and dances performed at any time for entertainment. 
 
The first group consists of ritual dances performed at festivals  associated with the seasons of the year and reflecting mankind's
relationship with nature.  Especially popular were the songs and dances devoted to the pre-Islamic festival which  takes place on the spring equinox. In addition to the all-night ritual of  stirring a large cauldron to make sumalak, a special dish made from 
seven grains, festivities also included suskhotin, a dance  asking for rain and majnun tal a dance by girls with fluffy  willow buds
woven into their braids. Other folk dances depict daily chores,  seasonal work, or important events. Some dances relate to ceremonies such as  wedding and funeral dances. Vestiges of Central Asian shamanism can be linked  to the incantational dances of medicine men and fortune tellers which were  still common at the beginning of the twentieth century. Also still performed  is the zikr , a Sufi ritual in which dancers travel in a circle  with repetitive movements accompanied by chanting and percussion in order to  reach a meditative state. 

Entertainment dances include koshuk and kairok-ufari, each distinctive  to a particular area and featuring the playing of kairok, or  castanets made from smooth, flat river stones or metal. Lapar  is a duet to sung couplets; yalla is a solo dance accompanied  by song. Gul Ufari (jocular rhythms) or khaivonlar-ufari  (animal rhythms) are sometimes obvious pantomimes illustrating the habits of  animals, birds, or fish; at other times they are sophisticated dances  representing the stylized images of wild or
domesticated animals.

Uzbek dance is characterized by intricate arm and hand movements, a variety of  spins and turns, backbends, shoulder isolations and animated facial  expressions. Often portions of the dance are performed while kneeling on the  floor. Footwork is relatively simple; high leaps and pelvic isolations are  absent from the traditional dance. The primary dancing is done by women and girls. 
 
Musical accompaniment takes many forms, varying from purely rhythmic structures and  melodies of a narrow tonal range performed by a single percussion instrument  or two-stringed instruments, to classical maqom (complex compositions  of
many parts), to works performed by a large orchestra of folk instruments  with singers. 

The professional dance tradition falls into three categories. The first includes raqs, oyin, and ufari, technically  sophisticated dances performed by virtuoso who may improvise on their  patterns. The second group is gul ufari, the humorous,  imitative form developed by dancers of the Uzbek theatre of Maskharaboz.  The third category consists of dances preformed by traditional circus artists  that include various acrobatic stunts.

Three regional styles of Uzbek dance, each of which has clearly defined forms and  systems of training, developed in the separate political entities which  existed in the Turkestan prior to its incorporation into the Soviet Union.  The Khanate of Kokand in the Ferghana Valley, the Khanate of Khiva in the  Khorezm region, and the Emirate of Bukhara produced Ferghana, Khorezm, and  Bukharan styles respectively.

The most lyrical of the three schools, Ferghana dance is characterized by  intricate wrist circles and undulations of the hands and arms with pliant use of the spine and a shy, yet playful, demeanor.

Khorezm dances often feature trembling of the hands and torso, frequent head slides   and comic elements. The most popular of Khorezm dances, lazgi, was  originally a healing dance.

Dances  from Bukhara feature a proud carriage and the juxtaposition of soft,  undulating movements with crisp, stacco motions. The Bukharan genre is the most acrobatic of the three, often requiring fast spins, sudden drops to the floor, and deep backbends,

Expanded contact with the outside world, especially in the 1980s, encouraged Western  dance forms to flourish in the Uzbekistan, including ballroom dance and American break-dance, aerobics, and hip-hop. Cultural exchange, most notably  through the sister-city relationship between Tashkent and Seattle, resulted  in an increased interest in Uzbek dance abroad with non-Uzbeks in the United  States and Europe studying and performing traditional choreographies. In  1985, the Uzbek Dance Society was founded in the United States to preserve  and promote Central Asian culture. The name was later expanded to its present form, the Uzbek Dance and Culture Society, to reflect the more inclusive nature of its activities.

copyright 1995, 2009, 2013, and 2015  by Laurel Victoria Gray 
 






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